A Baby Cried

They had arrived back on the Island three days after the funeral of their second born boy child; heart broken.

Sitting in the kitchen the next morning feeling very blue, nay, devastated. No sound was heard in the room, excepting the soft noises made by the large copper kettle on the back of the coal burning range; that and an occasional snore of relaxed comfort from Rex on his dog mattress behind the stove.

My father rolled another cigarette, lit it with blue tipped Buffaloe match and spoke, saying, “ If Jimmy was still with us, he would be waking up about now and crying for me to come in and get him. “  The last syllable ha just passed his lips, when from the bedroom off the kitchen came the familiar crying of their dead eighteen month old son.

They sat frozen in time, as the German Sheppard/ Newfoundland mix, arose from his bed, stretched, and with wagging tail went the door and put his nose against the jamb. His little master was back home again and wanting to get up.

The crying continued for maybe thirty seconds, when my father spoke, saying, “ I’m going to get him. ! “ He opened the door and passed through the living room thence into the bedroom. The crib was empty, of course.

My parents told this story to the day of their deaths. Power of suggestion you say.?Perhaps so, but are animals prone to the power of suggestion or did Rex hear the baby’s cries??

Sydney

February 4, 2007